Author: oneseekingtruth

So, then, be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of your time because the times are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Stop getting drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:15-18

The key to understanding truth and experiencing God’s power in the life of a child of God is the Holy Spirit. Everything He has called us to do is made possible when His Spirit is in control.

Jesus told the disciples before His earthly departure that the Comforter would come to dwell with them and guide them. In the book of Acts, the Spirit was described as coming dramatically with a rushing wind and flames of fire appearing above everyone’s head in the upper room. They found themselves filled with joy, inspiration and power, speaking in languages they’d never known.

Can you picture it? A flame hovering above each of the heads of those in the room. Do you realize what had happened?

In that moment, the disciples, the first Jewish remnant – believers in Christ who had literally survived the transition from Old Covenant to New upon the death and resurrection of Christ – had become a living Menorah!

Christ, the servant lamp, had sent His Spirit to His people as promised, and each of them were set aflame to comfort His people and reach the world. They were His Menorah in His temple! And He had visibly identified them as His, set apart to carry out His mission.

From that point on, the disciples were empowered, emboldened, guided to exhort the people with divine wisdom, heal the sick, speak in foreign languages when needed to evangelize the lost, and more. All because of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit infilling each believer today continues to enable God to flow through us in every situation. He then uses us to reach the lost world through every means necessary. We continue to be His living Menorah! The entire Body of Christ, His magnificent, living temple!

‘Sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise…’ Ephesians 1:13

Certainly, the presence of Christ in our lives is sealed upon the moment of salvation, but the full power of the Holy Spirit is not constant. His ability to flow requires constant surrender.

The believer will struggle with surrender, finding it so tempting and easy to take back over his own life. But, only one can be in control at any given moment. When we are in control, He is not.

We have to relinquish the reigns and give them to Him every day, every hour, every moment. Perpetually willing the Spirit to take over is an absolute must in order to live a life flowing with the power and wisdom of Christ. It is why Paul in Ephesians 5:18 exhorted us to, “Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit.”

It means simply, all the time!

Interpreting Scripture in the Spirit

This may be one of the most important truths I’ve ever shared. Fellow believers, please understand, when someone is not surrendered and filled with the Holy Spirit, their teaching of Scripture may actually be dangerous. Yes, dangerous. For, they will be studying and understanding in only human wisdom, and will often miss the mark, get it wrong. Many others are misled when a teacher is off target.

Have you ever watched a scene in a movie where the good guys are trying to decipher computer code in order to save the day? Until the moment they enter the right key to break the code, the characters on the screen are a jumble, gibberish impossible to interpret.

That is exactly what it is like, trying to understand and fully interpret the Word of God without the Holy Spirit. I’ve said before, the Bible is an incredible, 3D matrix of truth. It is deep and wide, long and mysterious with only a small portion obviously visible, like an iceberg. Without putting on the mind of Christ through surrender and filling of the Holy Spirit, we may scratch a little on the surface, but will miss the whole picture.

The Spirit is the key to the depths of Scriptural knowledge. Everything changes when He is put in His proper place, in the lead. The Word comes alive, springing into 3D focus, and the heart and purpose will be breathed into your being by the Spirit.

Walking in the Spirit will be even more vital in coming decades while voices of deception grow louder and more dominant, and truth becomes harder to discern. Only those filled and surrendered will keep their heads above water and be able to call out frauds and deceivers. The rest will be vulnerable to following false prophets and even well-meaning teachers who take us far away from our real priorities and away from our first love, Jesus.

‘His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.’ 2 Peter 1:3

Practice today and every day surrendering and asking the Holy Spirit to fill you. Give Him charge of your day and of your study every time you open the Bible. He will keep you on center and will reveal truth.

In addition, His presence will comfort and guide you in every relationship and circumstance. It is His role, promised by Christ to the precious people of God. Don’t miss His wonderful gift to us, of Himself!

Precious Jesus, wonderful Lion of Judah, we ask you to battle for our nation today, and bring your wisdom and grace in the midst of chaos. Give us Your vision. Open the eyes of this nation to all TRUTH and restore our important agencies to Your path, a path of integrity.

Wake up Your people, Jesus, and guide us to walk in Your ways. Place men and women of wisdom in positions of power and leadership. Bless and safeguard our President, leaders, and their families whom You have called, “for such a time as this”.

We understand only You can make our nation great. We trust You with the precious gift You gave us we call the United States of America.

Amen.

Blessings and peace to all reading today. United we stand. There is no other alternative.

My prayer and encouragement is broadly for the people of God today, not just in America, but around the world. God’s precious people fill the whole earth, just as Isaiah prophesied they would some day, after the Redeemer had, well, redeemed them.

The followers of Messiah, Jesus Christ, have indeed, spread worldwide. But the densest population of His people live in the United States. By more than 30%, we contain more Christians than any other nation. This means we contain the metaphorical heart of Christianity, whether we want to be known that way or not.

America has not always been true to her role as heart of God’s people. Many have tried to make this a political battle. Maybe there is a place for that, but I prefer to see it as a spiritual battle.

Let’s revisit one of my favorite passages, 2 Chronicles 7:14:

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.”

I’ve spoken of this before, but it is my strong belief the way to apply this for our country (and for your country, wherever you may live), is to recognize God said “if MY PEOPLE will do these things… I will hear… forgive… and heal their LAND!”

God’s formula for blessing His land is for His people to get right with Him. The entire nation benefits.

In the same spirit, the entire point of this blog overall is to call American Christians to renewal. For, when we are right with Him, His blessing falls upon our nation. When God’s favor and blessing is upon this nation, we in turn bless the whole world with aid and refuge for the hurting.

A few years ago in my personal life, I came to a point where I began surrendering to the Lord every morning before getting out of bed. I tell Him, “I am Yours, fill me Holy Spirit, and take over this day.” At night, before going to sleep, I pray, “Holy Spirit, take over even my sleep and dreams!”

Try it, if you haven’t already, surrendering and asking the Holy Spirit to fill you, and then give Him even your night. You may be surprised how differently you see your circumstances, relationships, and beyond.

The Spirit brings every good gift with His presence, such as patience, wisdom, and love. Everything we don’t have, He has and gives freely to those surrendered to Him.

This is how we change our country. We begin by taking this first step of trust in relationship to the Lord, putting our hand into the hand of our great Savior, Jesus, and giving His Spirit full authority. Any other changes needed in our lives are up to Him from that point forward.

This is abundant life. This is the path to wholeness for individuals and nations!

God bless America, and may she continue to bless the world. God bless your nation, wherever you may be, through YOUR obedience to Him! That is the promise of God to His people, and isn’t it just amazing?

This is written to counter a recent article circulating the net claiming the people of God should expect Elijah to come back to earth before the Return of Christ. It is not the first time I have heard this teaching, and it is false! Realize, it is important to challenge such teaching, for if we are not grounded in truth, we make ourselves vulnerable to deception in the end times.

Here is the background. At the beginning of Matthew 17, Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. They witnessed Him transform into His true, glorious form, where Scripture tells us ‘His face shone like the sun and His clothing became white as light’.

Appearing alongside Jesus were the spirits of Moses and Elijah. Peter in his enthusiasm offered to make booths for each of them, momentarily failing to realize Who should have been his only priority. God’s voice came from heaven in response, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

So often, just like Peter, we slide off point in attempting to interpret the will of God and His Word. The focal point, the bullseye if you will, is always Messiah. Any movement, however slight, off center of Him misses the mark.

You see, Moses and Elijah appeared along with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration to make a point. The most revered prophets of Judaism were with Jesus! Then God made sure everyone present understood which of them was solely Lord and Master: His Son!

The circulating article I mentioned at the start, conjectured that when Elijah returns in the end times, He will likely ‘restore’ traditions of Judaism before the return of Christ. Oops, he missed the mark and the priority, that being Christ, not Judaism!

Now, I love teaching that helps us understand our Hebraic roots and connects Old and New Testaments. It helps us put all the pieces of the Scriptural puzzle together, and when it is done right, it points us to our Savior again and again. This is already happening through great scholars today like Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, for one.

But, any teaching that the people of God must return to traditions or especially laws of Judaism is strictly false and mis-leading. The New Testament declared the law obsolete. Paul explained it once served as a ‘nanny’ to the ancient people of God, and was retired at the cross. We now have our Bridegroom and His Spirit to guide us. To crawl back to the nanny is absurd and offensive to Him!

Back to Elijah. Should we expect him to come again, to restore Judaism and usher in the end times before Christ returns? No. Jesus, in Matthew 17, makes it very plain that Elijah already came a second time, and His mission was none other than to point the way to Christ.

Listen in to His conversation with the disciples:

MATTHEW 17:10-13

His disciples asked him, ‘Why do the scribes say Elijah must come first?’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Elijah certainly comes first, and restores all things. But I say to you, Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, and have done to him what they wished. Likewise also the Son of man shall suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist.

Friends, I do not pretend to fully understand how John the Baptist was Elijah. Was he a literal reincarnation of the ancient prophet? Or, did he possess a symbolic spirit of Elijah, bring back the same message as Elijah? I cannot say, and have heard it taught different ways.

But, the core message is clear. Jesus informed us no matter how you look at it, Elijah’s message did echo on earth a second time through John the Baptist before the ministry of Christ began.

This leaves us with a solid conclusion: Elijah is not coming yet another time. For, the focal point in time for which the prophet Elijah and John the Baptist were prepping us was Jesus’ ministry/death/resurrection, not His end-time return.

The time of the cross was the most important moment in human history! Within that pivotal event lies the identity of our Savior, that He gave everything for us, and that He became the only way through Whom we can be restored to the Father.

Once more, hear the words of God the Father, and then listen to those of His Son, as He instructed!

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him! (God, the Father; Matt 17:5)

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (Jesus; John 14:6)

Before closing, let’s reflect once more on the message of John the Baptist, for it is most certainly needed today!

MATTHEW 3:1-3

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him’.”

John did what was prophesied and prepared the way for Jesus to be received by His people. And Jesus brought the kingdom of heaven to earth, as John declared.

Will you recognize the focal point of the entire Bible, and of history: Jesus our Redeemer and Messiah, and know and trust Him today?

In the Gospels, before the Cross, healing was apparently used mainly as a tool of evangelism, to draw the people and convince them of the power in Christ, His divinity. Christ, Himself, healed ALL who came to Him. In addition, He gave each of the twelve disciples the gift of healing as part of their evangelical mission.

Christ healed everyone (Matt 4):

And Jesus was going about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the reign, and healing every disease, and everymalady among the people,

and his fame went forth to all Syria, and they brought to him all having ailments, pressed with manifold sicknesses and pains, and demoniacs, and lunatics, and paralytics, and he healed them. Matthew 4:23-24 Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)

Disciples were all given healing gift (Matt 10):

And having called to him his twelve disciples, he gave to them power over unclean spirits, so as to be casting them out, and to be healing every sickness, and every malady.

In modern day, whether in person or through the testimony of documentaries such as those made by filmmaker, Darren Wilson [Finger of God, Furious Love, Father of Lights, etc], we can see evangelical teams witnessing on the streets around the world and healing the sick and lame. There are times not everyone is healed, however. It seems to be determined by the will of the Spirit for His purposes.

Yet, it also seems there are some unique individuals who are able to heal every person they lay hands on. This would indicate they have the gift of healing, specifically.

Perfectly in line with Scripture, we might conclude God can use anyone to heal when He wishes to reach the lost. However, some in the body of Christ possess the gift of healing to benefit both the body of Christ and non-believers.

[Readers, this post is very informal, and may not be final. It is my personal notes from studies I did on September 23, October 5, and October 21, on Revelation 12.]

9/23/2017

September 23, 2017, was a day the constellations demonstrated the Revelation 12 passage:

REV 12.1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: REV 12.2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

On September 23, I saved a screenshot (above) from my cell phone app, StarTrackerLite, which shows in real time the positions and movement of the stars and planets. The constellations show Virgo (i.e., the ‘woman’) with the sun at her neck, the moon at her feet, etc, just as Rev. 12 described.

Studying that photo, I noticed two things.

The position of Jupiter does make her look pregnant, or as if she is giving birth! Jupiter is the ‘King’ planet, so Virgo is pregnant with the King! That makes the identity of Virgo, Mary, and in greater, symbolic terms, ancient Israel! She was the one who brought Christ forth into the world. However, she is also the one who KNOWS He is the King. Therefore, through the birth, the woman transforms to become Israel of God, the family of God, now followers of Messiah.

Note the position of constellation Virgo – under the constellation Leo. Virgo is literally ‘following’ Leo in her trajectory. Again, the symbolism of Virgo as Israel of God, following Leo, the Lion. The Bible tells us Christ is the Lion of Judah! The constellations, in sync with Scripture, identity Virgo as those following Christ.

The significance of the above in relation to Rev. 12, I believe, is that ultimately, the woman who will be under attack by the ‘dragon’ is going to be Israel of God, in modern times the body of Christ, His church.

10/5/2017

Studying Rev 12:6, trying to make sense of the ‘wilderness’ to which the ‘woman’ flees for protection from the dragon for ‘1260 days’.

Researching definitions of ‘wilderness’ in Greek, in Strong’s Bible dictionary. All shown below.* Note, most interesting is the comparative word in Strongs, #5561. See below in blue.

Oddly, upon studying these word meanings, a song started ‘playing’ in my head: ‘This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York islands… from the Redwood forest to the gulf stream waters… this land was made for you and me.’

Hmmm. I haven’t thought of that song in perhaps years. A message from the Spirit? He often speaks to me by putting songs in my mind.

America certainly did fit the descriptions (from Strong’s for ‘wilderness’, see below) at the time the colonists came… She was ‘an expansive land, largely unpopulated (at the time), between two limits…’ (either way you look at it we are still between two limits: 2 oceans on east/west coasts… 2 neighbors on north/south coasts).

America happens to contain the densest population of the followers of Messiah… so far, still a land of religious freedom. If America is potentially the land made to protect the ‘woman’, then what does the ‘1260 days’ really mean?

And when is that time ‘up’?

10/21/2017

Rev 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast forth to the earth, he pursued the woman who did bring forth the male, rev.12.14 and there were given to the woman two wings of the great eagle, that she may fly to the wilderness*, to her place, where she is nourished a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent; rev.12.15 and the serpent did cast forth after the woman, out of his mouth, water as a river, that he may cause her to be carried away by the river, rev.12.16 and the land did help the woman, and the land did open its mouth and did swallow up the river, that the dragon did cast forth out of his mouth; rev.12.17 and the dragon was angry against the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, those keeping the commands of God, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ. (YLT)

Revelation 12:13-17 again mentions the wilderness, a land which protects the ‘woman who brought forth the male’ for a period of time. Having established I believe the woman to represent both Mary and Israel of God… or, all who follow Christ, then it may be logical to presume the land which houses the largest numbers of His followers might, in fact, be just that land.

In these last centuries, the primary land protecting Christians has been America. Is it a coincidence Rev. 12 mentions the eagle helping the woman get to the wilderness land that protects her, and America’s national symbol is the American Bald Eagle?

Indeed, if you consider the words above from Revelation 12, America fits the description. She was an expansive, largely uninhabited land at the time of her founding, she has taken in the largest number of Christian refugees, prevented persecution of Christians within her borders and provided a safe and prosperous place for them to live and thrive. Certainly, there are other countries that also continue to protect Christians, but none more pronounced than the U.S. in the last nearly two and a half centuries.

As to the very specific, albeit cryptic, reference to ‘a time, and times, and half a time’, during which the land is able to protect the woman, we need to consider the meaning. There are many who have taught in solidarity this is a reference to the 3 1/2 years of the tribulation. But, could it also (or instead) be referring to the few hundred years one nation has offered refuge and protection to the people of God in the last centuries?

IF the land is America, if we agree she has protected the largest number of Christ-followers as indicated in Revelation 12… we can look at the dates the first Christians fled to her in search of religious freedom and see if the years since then might come anywhere close to fitting into the ‘time, times and half a time’ pattern.

First, there was a lost Colony that first arrived around 1585 (Approx. 432 years from present.) The enduring Colonies were established beginning 1607, with Jamestown, a business venture. (Approx. 410 years from present.)

Puritans arrived Plymouth in 1620, desiring to start a new, pure church, fleeing the corrupt church of England. (Approx. 397 years from present.)

Based on the numbers above, 450 years fits the pattern of a ‘time, times, and half a time’. With that in mind, the above 3 scenarios would yield 18 years, 40 years, or 53 years remaining, respectively.

This is just something to think about, by no means a conclusive study. It is merely one possibility to ponder. I’ve learned over the years, prophetic passages can apply to multiple events or time periods, so one meaning does not necessarily cancel out another.

1. solitary, lonely, desolate, uninhabited a. used of places 1. a desert, wilderness 2. deserted places, lonely regions 3. an uncultivated region fit for pasturage b. used of persons [Also, ominously:] 1. deserted by others 2. deprived of the aid and protection of others, especially of friends, acquaintances, kindred 3. bereft a. of a flock deserted by the shepherd b. of a woman neglected by her husband, from whom the husband withholds himself.

*(5561) χωρα, — kho’-rah; feminine of a derivative of the base of (5490) (χασμα) through the idea of empty expanse; room, i.e. a space of territory (more or less extensive; often including its inhabitant): — coast, county, fields, ground, land, region.

Transliterated: chora; Pronounced: kho’-rah from a derivative of the base of 5490 through the idea of empty expanse; n f Trans. & freq. in the AV- country 15 times, region 5 times, land 3 times, field 2 times, ground 1 time, coast 1 time; 27 occurrences of Greek word in AV,

1. the space lying between two places or limits. [Blogger’s note: could that be between 2 major oceans, OR with 2 border neighbors?? Does any other country in the world fit this description?]

2. a region or country i.e. a tract of land a. the (rural) region surrounding a city or village, the country b. the region with towns and villages which surround a metropolis 3. land which is ploughed or cultivated, ground.